A TABLE IN THE WILDERNESS

 

                                                                

 

A Table in the Wilderness             Copyright Frances K. Van Mil

 

   Things were dull.  Sometimes, there are periods in ministry when there is a lull, things are hard, you do not sense any direction from God nor sense anything good happening.  We were on a small reserve in Manitoba, living in a tiny, shabby box-like house in, of all places, a lumber yard.

Let me tell you about our little shabby boxy house in the lumber yard. Then that will help you to understand why an inexpensive but pretty table could possibly mean so much to me.

 

The house, one of six emergency wartime houses bought for a song by the Wa-Wa-Taik  native lumber yard for storage, was small but classic and well-constructed, with two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs,  and a bedroom, kitchen and long living-dining room area downstairs. There was no basement, but Rien had added on a back porch area for the washer and drier.  For the first summer we were on the reserve, we used an outhouse, presented to us with great flourish.  We saw a lot of northern lights that summer while stumbling over boards to the outhouse in the night!  Our organization fought for us to have “waterworks”, the locals’ term for running water, on the basis that most of the reserve residents had it and “pioneer days are over”.  I remember the day we tested to see whether water was really coming out of those creaky old pipes.  It did.  No more heating up vats of water for personal washing and dishes. Perhaps I would have time to do something other than this while on the reserve, such as teaching Bible stories and making friends. But I digress.

 

We had accepted the call to volunteer in an agricultural economic development project with a Christian organization and had moved into the only housing available with our two children, aged ten and eight.  Now the project was over and Rien was unable to get a job at his age.  The only good thing was the ties we had established with the Gospel Church believers who came to our house every Thursday night for a Bible study. We also had many ties with the community and trusted  friends.

 

      Rien and I also volunteered at a Winnipeg rescue mission and soup kitchen once a week.  It is this connection which led to the unexpected receiving of some furniture, including a dining room table with four chairs, absolutely free, from the daughter of the mission supervisor.  All of a sudden – furniture, when we hardly could have afforded even $20 to pay for it!

  I fell in love with the pretty table and chairs.  The table was octagonal with a glass centre, the chairs cane look-alike.  What was it about that table that brought healing to my soul?  I like pretty things, and it was so unexpected, and things were so dreary. 

   

    When we placed the new table and chairs by the sunny window at the far end of the living room, we suddenly had an open concept living-dining area for ourselves and guests. 

When relatives came to stay with us, we could seat them spaciously at the dining table.  There really would not have been room at the tiny kitchen table for more than our little family of four. 

   I noticed that people were drawn like a magnet to the table.  I can still see the frilly pink African violet centrepiece and native ladies pulling out the chairs to sit for the Bible study. Children were drawn there to play board games. I simply enjoyed the prettiness and practicality of it and revelled in the unexpected provision of God. 

 

 My husband, always intensely practical, did not like the table because it had a slight wobble. A man feels more comfortable at a large, solid table on which his coffee never spills. That fact merely emphasizes the point that the table was really for me- a personal gift of encouragement and beauty for me - God’s table in the wilderness for me, when no one else understood.

 

    That table gave me hope, showed me that God knows me intimately as Ps.139 says, and told me that He cares, and gave me a sense of His ongoing presence.

 

 

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